Clearly materialized lightning was striking the invisible outer wall of the Super True Energy Field.
Crackle, crack-crack-crack, crack-crack-crack-crack.
The intermittent flashes of lightning splitting through the air scorched the dirt floor of the Training Grounds white.
Myo Jin-heo's eyes, fixed on Dong Bong-soo, completely motionless.
Dong Bong-soo's eyes, gazing back at Myo Jin-heo without expression.
The Super True Energy Field was trembling.
Not during the great battle with Yeon Yeong-ha before, nor when fighting the enormous nine-tailed fox, nor even recently when breaking through Dong Mu-toe's Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell—there had never been anything like this.
'Interesting.'
Yet this was still merely vibration.
Between vibration and breakthrough lay an uncrossable river.
Crunch.
Dong Bong-soo took one step forward.
Crack—!
The lightning reacted. The invisible electrical potential converged sharply around the point where his foot landed. Myo Jin-heo's Formation Field was closing in, trying to seize the intruder.
Crunch, the second step.
Crack-crack-crack—!
Third.
Fourth.
Dong Bong-soo was walking.
He was striding steadily forward through the heart of the Thunder Seal Absolute Ring, directly toward Myo Jin-heo.
Lightning raked across his entire body. Static electricity stood his hair on end, and blue sparks flew ceaselessly from the blade of the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword. With that, the trembling of the Super True Energy Field grew ever larger.
Even so, there was not a single waver in Dong Bong-soo's stride.
He walked as if taking a stroll.
"...!"
One of Myo Jin-heo's eyes flew wide open.
Impossible.
The Thunder Seal Absolute Ring was a formation technique that contracted the muscles, locked the joints, and misfired the nerves of anyone trapped within. Even if internal energy blocked it, the physical stimulation of the lightning acted directly on flesh and bone, constricting even the Dantian and severing the very flow of internal power...
Enduring it—that much could somehow be understood.
There certainly were quite a few martial artists in the Martial World who occasionally displayed incomprehensible endurance.
But...walking?
Inside that?
This wasn't blocking. He was behaving as if the Thunder Seal Absolute Ring didn't exist.
Fwap.
Myo Jin-heo flicked his fan once more.
The density of the Formation Field surged sharply.
Every piece of metal in the vicinity screamed.
Yet.
Fifth step.
Sixth.
Seventh.
Dong Bong-soo was still walking.
Not even his stride faltered. Steps as unhurried as a man strolling through early spring fields.
A faint tremor came to the hand gripping Myo Jin-heo's fan.
'This person...'
Whether the formation simply didn't work on him, or whether he had perfectly understood it and reverse-calculated his way through it.
Or perhaps he was a new breed of human being beyond all understanding.
Whichever the answer, the conclusion was the same.
The Thunder Seal Absolute Ring could not hold this man.
Eight steps.
The distance between Dong Bong-soo and Myo Jin-heo had closed to five paces.
At that moment.
Dong Bong-soo raised his left hand.
Click.
Light condensed at his fingertips.
A single pure white arrow floated up above Dong Bong-soo's left hand. A radiant light—impossibly bright yet without heat.
[Faith Arrow].
The tip of the arrow was aimed at the space between Myo Jin-heo's brows.
"..."
Myo Jin-heo's breath stopped.
This was different from before. In the earlier exchange, Dong Bong-soo had used only his sword. That alone had been enough to completely suppress Eom Bi-ryeong.
What he had drawn out now was not a sword, not True Energy, not internal power—it was something else entirely.
Light that did not belong to the realm of Energy.
Myo Jin-heo's Soul-Reading Eyes were already shattered, but even with one eye remaining it was clear. That thing did not belong to any system he knew.
Formation techniques could not interfere with it.
"You said your name was Trigram Leader Myo Jin-heo."
Dong Bong-soo opened his mouth.
His voice was calm. No threat, no anger, no excitement. Simply a flat tone conveying facts.
"I can shoot this, or I can not shoot it."
The arrow of light hovered quietly about three feet before Myo Jin-heo's brow.
"However."
Dong Bong-soo's eyes looked directly at Myo Jin-heo.
"If I shoot, this won't be an end—it'll be a new beginning, won't it?"
What kind of beginning didn't need to be explained for Myo Jin-heo to have a clear enough idea.
"Tomorrow is the Founding Ceremony and I'm a busy man, so what do you say we stop here—wouldn't that be best for both of us?"
The tone was light.
Yet Myo Jin-heo could read the weight contained within it quite clearly.
The voice of this man—a mere Guild Master of a newly founded sect—seemed to carry within it the power to shoulder everything, the composure, and even the persuasion all at once.
Staring at those eyes that were faintly smiling, a strange unease crept over him.
He had spent his whole life traversing the Martial World's field of swords and blades. He had faced every manner of martial artist, crossed swords with them all, endured extreme circumstances and extreme hardships—yet a person of this kind, he swore, was an absolute first.
What's more, he had not even seen everything behind those eyes yet.
'Without directly confirming or experiencing every one of his abilities...'
To be merely watching and feel as though his very soul had been scratched.
He was drained.
It was almost enough to create the illusion of standing alone before a hundred thousand absolute masters.
A small mercy, at least.
Whatever else—this man's words were not a threat, but the presentation of a choice.
Whether to continue as they were, or to stop.
Myo Jin-heo's fan-holding hand trembled faintly.
The Thunder Seal Absolute Ring was still in effect. But this formation had already lost its meaning. A prison that cannot hold the prisoner is no prison, and something this paltry could not contain this man.
Nonsensical.
"...."
Just as Myo Jin-heo's mouth was about to open.
"Stop."
An unexpected voice cut in.
It was Eom Bi-ryeong.
She had been leaning against the wall, and now she was slowly pulling herself upright. The rafters she had been reinforcing with True Energy were already split in two and rolling at her feet, and a thin trickle of blood was running down from the cut on her forearm.
Eom Bi-ryeong's gaze did not go to Dong Bong-soo. It was fixed on Myo Jin-heo.
"Trigram Leader Myo. Let's call it here."
"Trigram Leader Eom?"
The corners of Myo Jin-heo's eyes stretched long and downward.
"I was already thinking that myself."
A light chuckle, then he continued.
"Guild Master Kim is clearly a friend of Trigram Leader Dong, so what point is there in tangling hands further?"
"Yes, well. Right. That person over there..."
Eom Bi-ryeong jutted her chin toward Dong Bong-soo.
"Isn't an enemy. From the start, no intention to make an enemy of Formation Tower, no intention to kill us."
She knew because she was a martial artist before she was a Formation Taoist. In the skirmish just now, Dong Bong-soo had not once aimed for a vital point. The cut he had left was on the forearm. What he split in two was only the weapon.
Winning this overwhelmingly and still fighting to keep the opponent alive.
That was composure, and in its own way, a gesture of goodwill.
"Well... it also seems like the same result would just come out no matter how much more we try."
For the first time, Eom Bi-ryeong's voice settled into quiet calm.
The anger and excitement were already gone. In their place, interest and practical judgment had overlaid them. She knew well enough that pushing with force against someone force couldn't reach, only multiplied what you stood to lose.
How exactly things had ended up this way was something she'd have to retrace later, but formation techniques and formation arts either didn't work on this man Kim Rae-won, or produced only severely limited effects.
"..."
Myo Jin-heo had already reached the same conclusion as Eom Bi-ryeong.
Snap.
The fan closed, and the Thunder Seal Absolute Ring dissolved.
The pressure that had been bearing down on the air vanished in an instant. The sparks flying from the metal went out. The static electricity scattered, and ordinary morning air settled back over the Training Grounds.
Simultaneously.
The arrow of light above Dong Bong-soo's left hand also dissipated. Of course, he'd had no intention of shooting it from the start.
"A wise choice."
Dong Bong-soo returned the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword to his Inventory.
Myo Jin-heo's eyes narrowed once more at the sight of the sword vanishing into thin air, but this time he said nothing.
Eom Bi-ryeong dusted off the dirt from her backside and asked, eyes pointedly fixed on the distant mountains:
"Well, it looks like things have been more or less resolved, so... can you tell us now? Why our junior fellow disciple was holed up here, and why this so-called Hero Gate was the place he submitted himself to."
Still prickly, but the tone was different from before.
At least the will to use words rather than fists.
"Didn't I already say?"
Dong Bong-soo gave a light laugh.
"I won, then forgave him—and after being forgiven, he decided to stay."
Eom Bi-ryeong's eyebrow twitched, but she didn't have another outburst.
"Ha—. Yes, yes. Understood, fine. Either way, Mu-toe did go back to Formation Tower, right?"
"Away on business."
Dong Bong-soo smiled, deliberately letting the grin linger as he pointed to the ground repeatedly with his right index finger for emphasis.
"Here—to this Hero Gate—he'll be coming back. He hasn't returned to Formation Tower."
Dong Bong-soo continued without letting the smile fade.
"The reason for his submission isn't something I'm in a position to explain, so when Dong Mu-toe returns, ask him directly."
At the expression 'Dong Mu-toe,' Eom Bi-ryeong's face flushed red and white again, but she didn't explode.
After regulating her breathing with several slow, deep inhales and exhales, she looked at Dong Bong-soo with a composed expression.
"Yes yes, understood. You said tomorrow is the Founding Ceremony?"
"That's right."
"Then since our away-on-business Trigram Leader Dong will need a few days to finish his affairs at Formation Tower and return, the two of us can stay here for a few days to attend the Founding Ceremony as well—that'd be alright, yes?"
At those words, Dong Bong-soo's smile deepened.
Because it was exactly what he had been hoping for, and the outcome he had expected.
"Of course."
Myo Jin-heo, patting Eom Bi-ryeong's back lightly as she jutted her lip and turned away, half-opened his fan and then closed it again before speaking.
"...Very well. I'll trouble you until Trigram Leader Dong returns. I am grateful for your consideration. Guild Master Kim."
Myo Jin-heo brought his fists together in a cupped-fist salute.
"However, one thing."
His single eye—that eye from which the blood had not yet dried—looked directly at Dong Bong-soo.
"This Trigram Leader will be watching Guild Master Kim and Hero Gate during our stay here. Whatever it may be. All of it."
It was an open declaration that 'I will absolutely find out what kind of person you are, and what kind of place this Hero Gate is.' It was also words spoken after his own fashion of gauging what sort of person Dong Bong-soo was.
"Do as you please."
Dong Bong-soo simply smiled at ease.
* * *
Ruins.
The ruins of what had until a short while ago been Hero Gate's Main Hall lay scattered messily across one side of the Training Grounds. Where pillars had toppled, beams had come loose, roofs had caved in, and walls had cracked away, nothing but dust drifted up.
Once the fighting ended, Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo had withdrawn to the opposite end of the Training Grounds.
Eom Bi-ryeong was staunching the wound on her forearm with True Energy while still watching Dong Bong-soo's direction with eyes full of dissatisfaction, and Myo Jin-heo, fan closed, was quietly surveying the ruins and the Training Grounds as a whole.
Jeon Ra-hwa approached.
She had already sent the children to the back of the Training Grounds. She had left the younger ones in Ho-ae's care and came walking over alone.
Her gaze passed over Dong Bong-soo and then slowly swept across the ruins.
What had been the Main Hall until just a short while ago.
Picking each plank of wood out by hand. Driving each nail in by hand. Having conscripted workers and children alike and groaning through the effort to complete it—and this was the Main Hall.
Two days.
Barely two days.
"..."
Jeon Ra-hwa came and stood beside Dong Bong-soo.
Dong Bong-soo was also looking at the ruins. Without a word.
A brief silence passed.
"You know that thing you always used to say."
Jeon Ra-hwa opened her mouth. A tone without emotion. And precisely for that reason, all the more frightening.
"What is it?"
"The one who makes a mess has to clean it up."
"...."
Dong Bong-soo looked at the ruins.
Jeon Ra-hwa looked at the ruins.
The ruins gave no answer.
"...Did I say something like that?"
"Yes."
"...."
"That."
Jeon Ra-hwa jutted her chin at the ruins.
"Who made it?"
"...."
"Has to be cleaned up, right?"
"...."
A moment.
No reply.
The wind blew once, sweeping the dust off the ruins. Among the dust, one piece of wood was visible. The wooden plaque fragment where Ho-ae had carved the characters 'Hero Gate' in uneven strokes, barely peeking through.
Dong Bong-soo grinned.
Still grinning, he turned his head.
He looked one by one at Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo, standing at the far end of the Training Grounds.
"We should clean it up, shouldn't we?"
Jeon Ra-hwa's eyes went round.
"Pardon?"
"Two new workers just showed up, didn't they?"
"...You."
Jeon Ra-hwa pressed one hand to her forehead.
"Ha."
A sigh came out, but the corners of her lips were quietly curling upward.
Dong Bong-soo reached into the ruins and picked up Ho-ae's wooden plaque.
He tapped the dust off it.
The three characters 'Hero Gate' were vivid in the morning sunlight.
Tomorrow was the Founding Ceremony.
Before then, it all had to be cleaned up, didn't it?